Reforming taxation in the global age

On June 12, 2007, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution hosted a two-part forum and released a new set of policy proposals that address the challenges of reforming the U.S. tax system in an increasingly global economy. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers opened the discussion by providing an overview of a new Hamilton Project strategy paper that frames the challenges facing the current U.S. system of taxation and offers six guiding principles for progressively reforming the tax code.

The first panel discussion highlighted three new Hamilton Project discussion papers. Lily L. Batchelder of New York University discussed her proposal to replace the current estate tax system with an inheritance tax. A paper from Kimberly Clausing of Reed College and Reuven S. Avi-Yonah of the University of Michigan proposed a bold reform to the U.S. system of international corporate taxation by adopting a system of formulary apportionment. Finally, Edward Kleinbard of Cleary Gottlieb presented a proposal for a systematic rehabilitation of the business income tax. Jason Furman, Brookings Senior Fellow and Hamilton Project Director, moderated the discussion.

Following that discussion, a second panel broadly explored ways of improving the U.S. tax system. Alan Murray of the Wall Street Journal moderated an expert panel that included former U.S. Treasury Secretaries and Hamilton Project Advisory Council members Robert E. Rubin and Lawrence Summers; William G. Gale, Vice President for Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and Tax Policy Center Co-Director; Jason Furman, Director of The Hamilton Project; John L. Buckley, Senior Tax Counsel for the House Committee on Ways & Means (majority staff); Mark Prater, Deputy Staff Director and Chief Tax Counsel for the Senate Committee on Finance (minority staff); and former Assistant Treasury Secretaries for Tax Policy, Pamela Olson and Jon Talisman.